1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the production of filled wafer blocks in a process in which cover sheets, such as uncoated wafer sheets, and/or wafer sheets coated on their upper surface with a spreadable composition, such as a cream, are joined, wherein the top of each coated wafer sheet is contacted with the underside of the cover sheet or of another coated wafer sheet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the industrial production of filled wafer sheets it is known to insert successive coated wafer blocks in a lower position into two non-moving helical conveyors, which are rotatable in opposite senses about parallel axes, then to move said helical conveyors so that they raise the coated wafer sheet until it has been joined to the underside of a cover sheet or a coated wafer sheet which is in an upper position, whereafter the helical conveyors are arrested and the next coated wafer sheet is inserted in the lower position into the helical conveyors while they are not moving. When the helical conveyors are then started again, the wafer sheet in the lower position is raised and joined to the underside of the preceding coated wafer sheet, and the helical conveyors are then arrested again.
During the rotation of the helical conveyors, each coated wafer sheet which is being raised from the lower position to the upper position and the partial wafer block which is in the upper position are urged by the helical conveyors against a stop. When coated wafer sheets in the number required for the desired wafer block have been joined to the cover sheet, the stop is lowered and the rotation of the helical conveyors is resumed so that the complete wafer block is removed from the upper position. The stop is subsequently raised to its initial position. The formation of the next wafer block is not initiated until the stop has returned to its initial position and the helical conveyors have been arrested after the wafer block has been removed.
That known process of producing wafer blocks restricts the production rate.